We are baby boomers privileged to enjoy our dream of early retirement while traveling full-time. We recently traded our 2005 37' Allegro Bay for a 2015 DRV Tradition fifth wheel being towed by a 2015 Silverado 3500HD Duramax dually. We are in our ninth year of being on the road. We invite you to join us as we explore this amazing country. and navigate the full-time RV lifestyle. Our heartfelt thanks to our soldiers and their families for their sacrifices to ensure our freedom so that we can pursue our dream.

June 02, 2014

Bushnell, FL to Summerdale, AL

Summerdale, AL - Events of Monday, May 26 to Thursday, May 29, 2014

After our excursion to Bradenton on Saturday, we worked on our pre-departure chores off and on over the balance of the Memorial Day weekend. We were in Florida about a week shy of 6 full months, which is the longest we have been in one place since we started full-timing almost 8 years ago. We had a lot of things to put away, a few more things to leave in the shed, tire pressures and oil to check, laundry to catch up on, plants on our site to water, and the list goes on.

We also made a Walmart run on Monday to stock up on a few groceries so we wouldn't have to run out shopping as soon as we arrived in Summerdale. Late on Monday afternoon, we decided instead of grilling our own burgers for the holiday, we would take advantage of Burger Monday at Beef O'Brady's one more time. On Mondays, they have their half-pound, Angus, build-your-own burgers for $4.99 (regularly $7.99).

Margery had her burger with the works minus onion, and Paul had his with just cheese and ketchup. The burgers were as good as they always are - juicy and flavorful. Margery had onion rings for her side, and Paul had fries.

Margery with her burger and onion rings

We headed out on our trek to Summerdale, AL on Tuesday morning. On this stop in Summerdale, we'll be there a shorter time than usual because we stayed in Florida much longer waiting for our pavement, shed and landscaping to be done. Not only would we be in Summerdale less time, but we also pushed our stay back 5 or 6 weeks later than usual.

Our drive on Tuesday was a little over 5 hours, which is a little longer than we like to go in one day. However, our overnight stop at Florida Springs RV Resort and Campground in Bonifay, FL was in the Central Time Zone, so gaining an hour with the time change made the drive seem to be somewhat shorter than it actually was.

Florida Springs RV has about 40 RV sites, all of which have full hookups as far as we could tell. Some sites have 30-amp electric and some have 30/50-amp electric ($3 extra). There is free cable throughout the campground, although some of the wires run long distances over the surface of the ground, and there is free Wi-Fi in the office. Our site was close enough to the office we could have used the Wi-Fi from inside our rig. However, there was a good Verizon 4G signal, so we just used our own Mi-Fi.

The gravel roads in the campground are a little bumpy in spots. The sites are also gravel, and because there are a good many trees, some of the sites (like ours) are all gravel. A few sites have a little grass. Some of the sites are a little close together, and some have a bit more space.

Our site at Florida Springs RV

View up the road past our site

Florida Springs RV has a lot of trees, but they do have several satellite-friendly sites. Even with trees on the south side of our site, our dish still found the satellite fairly easily. Being this far south helps because the dish is pointed high in the air so it will clear relatively tall trees that would block the signal farther north.

The campground is conveniently located only a short distance off I-10, but there is surprisingly little traffic noise, especially at night. I-10 isn't as busy as a lot of other interstates, and traffic diminishes quite a bit at night.

Florida Springs offers the typical 10% discounts for Good Sam, AAA, AARP, etc. They also offer a 50% discount off the base rate to Passport America members. Our price for a 50-amp site with the PA discount was $19 plus tax. There is an additional charge of $1 if you pay for your site with check or charge card instead of cash.

On Wednesday morning, we hit the road again for the final leg of our journey to the Escapees' Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL. With a longer drive on Tuesday, our drive on Wednesday was only about 2½ hours, and we arrived a little before noon.

The sites in the campground at Escapees' Rainbow Plantation are generously-sized, and all have full hookups except for a dry camp area. About half the sites are 30 amp and the other half are 30/50 amp. The sites are mostly grass, although the bare spots under the live oak trees increase in size every year as the trees grow. We reserved a site that has a tree only on one side and that has grass on the door side.

Our site at Rainbow Plantation

Wi-Fi is available for a fee. Rainbow Plantation is also in a Verizon 4G area. However, last fall and again on this stop, the signal strength was weaker than we remember it being on previous stops. We don't know if Verizon moved their tower or if there is some kind of interference, but both internet and telephone reception were kind of flaky late in the afternoon and into the evening, especially when it was raining.

Campground rates for a 30-amp site for Escapees members is $19 daily and $116 weekly with no additional charge for electricity. The monthly rate is $240 +electric. There is a charge of $1 extra a night for a 50-amp site.

Since our stop in Summerdale was later than usual, we didn't expect to see many people in the campground because Lower Alabama gets quite warm in summer, and everyone takes off for cooler areas. There were only a few RVs scattered here and there.

Only a few RVs remaining

We don't have a lot of sightseeing planned for our shortened stay in Summerdale, but something is likely to turn up. We do have a lot of favorite restaurants we want to visit, so eating out is high on our list of things to do. Stay tuned.

November 05, 2013

Relaxing in Alabama

Summerdale, AL - Events of Friday, October 25 to Tuesday, November 5, 2013

After chasing around New England all summer, we were looking forward to some down time. Shortly after we got to Alabama, we settled into a pattern of relaxing and doing a few minor projects around the motor home. Even Freeway gets into the relaxation thing. Later in the evening, he likes to go into his crate and bunch up his blankets and just chill out.

Freeway ready for a nap

On Friday, we got up the gumption to go to Walmart to restock the larder. Going to church with a stop at Sam's Club on the way back to the motor home was on the schedule for Sunday.

We relaxed and puttered around the motor home all Monday afternoon. On Monday evening, Darrell and Judy invited us and another couple, Jim and Ellie, to dinner at their rig. We met Jim and Ellie last year through Darrell and Judy, and they pulled into a site across the road from us on Monday afternoon. Judy made some delicious lasagna with brownies for dessert. We had lots of laughs before heading back to our motor home for an evening of TV.

We have numerous favorite restaurants here in Lower Alabama. As we mentioned in an earlier post, our budget took a big hit with the high expenses of touring New England, so we are trying to space out the time between eating out. By Wednesday, however, we couldn't wait any longer. At first, we planned to go to Panini Pete's in Fairhope. However, since part of the enjoyment of eating lunch there is eating outside on their patio and since it was cloudy and breezy, we changed our minds and went to LA BBQ instead. LA BBQ is located about 10 minutes from the campground on Highway 59.

LA BBQ

LA BBQ serves pulled pork, beef brisket, chicken and ribs. Sandwiches and sandwich combos range in price from about $4 to $7, lunch plates are $6 to $7.50 and dinner plates are $9 to $13. We usually go mid-afternoon and have pulled pork dinner plates for $9, which includes two sides. Margery had slaw and potato salad, and Paul had potato salad and sliced tomatoes. The pork was tender and moist, and the sides were good, too.

Paul about to dig in

We did a lot of relaxing and just puttering around the motor home the rest of the week. Over the weekend, we went to church then watched the NASCAR race on Sunday.

On Tuesday, we had a few errands to run. On our way back to the motor home, we went by way of Billy's Seafood in Bon Secour a few miles to the south of Summerdale to pick up some fresh shrimp for a new recipe Margery wanted to try for dinner that evening. Bon Secour is the home of a small fleet of fishing boats and a couple of seafood packing houses that also sell fish and shrimp to the public.

Some of the Bon Secour fishing fleet docked next to Billy's

As we drove up, we noticed Billy's is sporting a new paint job and new signs. The building used to be all white, but they painted the siding bright blue.

Billy's Seafood

Billy's has fresh shrimp available in a variety of sizes. We usually get medium to large because, although they are more expensive, they are easier to peel and de-vein.

Margery checking out the selection of shrimp

We headed back to the motor home to chill out for the rest of the afternoon. Margery made a new recipe for dinner called creamy seafood casserole that included the shrimp from Billy's and haddock Darrell and Judy picked up for us at Joe Patty's Seafood in Pensacola when they went there the day before. It was delish!

So far, our stay in Lower Alabama has been very restful, which is just what we needed after a busy summer of sightseeing. We don't have any major activities planned, but something is bound to come up so stay tuned.

October 29, 2013

Nashville to Summerdale, AL

Summerdale, AL - Events of Monday, October 21 to Tuesday, October 22, 2013

On Monday, we continued on our way south to Summerdale, AL where we'll spend most of the rest of the fall before heading into Florida for the winter. Summerdale is a favorite location of ours, and we usually spend a month or so there in the fall on our way to Florida and another month in the spring after leaving Florida.

We scheduled an overnight stop in Montgomery, AL. Even though we got a relatively early start, we didn't pull into The Woods RV Park until about 2:30 because at 5½ hours, it was another one of several drives that we've made recently that was longer than we usually like to make. The Woods RV Park has over 100 sites, all of which are full-hookup pull-throughs. All sites also have 30/50-amp electric, and there is free cable and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi was fairly fast, and we had a strong signal. The campground is also in an area where there is a good Verizon 4G signal.

The roads and pads are gravel, there is grass between the sites, and the sites are all nice and big (40' x 80').

Our site at The Woods RV Park

View down our row toward the office

The Woods RV is a Passport America campground. Although they take reservations for regular sites, you can't reserve if you want the PA rate. However, we had no problem getting a site on a Monday in the off-season. The discounted rate for our site was around $22.

On Tuesday morning, we were off again on our way to Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale. Rainbow Plantation is a campground that belongs to the Escapees RV Club. Up until this year, the Escapees never took reservations at any of their campgrounds, but that is all changing. Rainbow
Plantation is one of several Escapees campgrounds that are part of the initial, gradual roll-out of their new reservation system. We made our reservations a couple of months ago when they first announced the beginning of the roll-out. They hope to have the reservation system up and running at all their campgrounds by the end of the year.

The Escapees have several different types of parks - some are campgrounds only, some have co-op sites only, and some have a combination of campground and co-op sites. When they're not using them, owners of co-op sites can put their sites into a rental pool if they wish. Those sites will not be subject to reservations and will continue to be first come-first served.

We pulled into Rainbow Plantation around 12:30. The office is still on summer hours and is closed from 11 to 3:00, but since you can now reserve a specific site, we didn't have to wait to see what site we would be assigned and were able to proceed directly to our space. We went down to the office later to register and pay.

The Escapees used to charge extra for metered electric, even for one-night stays. There are new camping fees that now include the cost of electricity at a flat rate. The new camping fee for members at Rainbow Plantation is $20 a night or $123 a week, which is pretty reasonable for a large, 50-amp, full-hookup site. About half the sites have 30-amp electric and cost $1 a night less. There are also off-season specials that are a really good deal, but they're only available on 30-amp sites.

Although there is a dry camp area available for $5 a night, all the regular sites have full hookups. There is also W-Fi available for a fee.

In the past, we had a strong Verizon 4G signal at the campground, but this time 4G seems to fade in and out later in the afternoon and evening. Every time that happened, we got knocked offline, and we frequently had to reboot the modem to get back on. We improved things by going into the setup menu for the modem and changing the automatic setting to manually lock the modem to 4G. Locking the modem onto either 3G or 4G depending what's available in the area in which you are located seems to eliminate the need to have to reboot the modem several times a day. You just have to remember to change the setting back to automatic or to 3G when you move to a different area.

The roads at Rainbow plantation are paved, and the generously-sized sites are mostly grass, except for some bare spots under the live oak trees. We reserved a site that has a tree on the western side to provide shade from the afternoon sun, but it has no tree on the door side so there is nice grass for Freeway.

Our site at Rainbow Plantation

The campground is usually only sparsely populated when we arrive around this time of year; but this year, it seemed emptier than in the past.

Not many RVs in sight

We theorized the low occupancy when we first arrived was probably because the weather has been fairly warm this fall, and a lot of people hadn't yet felt the need to head south. However, the weather up north was definitely cooling off. The lows the last two nights we were in Nashville were down in the mid-30s, and it was predicted to be about the same, or even lower, for the entire following week. There was even sn*w (can't bring ourselves to type out that s-word) in the forecast for some areas in the upper midwest. Our theory about the weather seems to have been borne out because quite a few people started pulling into Rainbow Plantation a day or two after we did. Although the campground was still far from full, within two days of our arrival, there were more RVs all around us.

More RVs two days later

We plan to relax for the next month or so while we're in Summerdale, so our posts will probably be a little less frequent. However, we're bound to find a few things to do while we're here, so stay tuned.

April 08, 2013

Florida Farewell and Alabama Arrival

Summerdale, AL - Events of Friday, March 29 to Wednesday, April 3, 2013

On
Friday and Saturday, we relaxed a bit and also began to do a few things
to get ready for our departure the following Tuesday. After church on
Easter Sunday, we met up with our friends, Pat and Mike, and two other
couples for Easter lupper at Cracker Barrel.

Cracker
Barrel seems to be our go-to place for meals on holidays. They have
consistently good, southern-style, comfort food at very reasonable
prices. Lots of other people apparently feel the same way about Cracker
Barrel as we do because it is usually pretty crowded, especially on
holidays. We arrived shortly after 2:00 p.m. and had about a 35-minute wait for a table. The time passed
quickly as we chatted on the porch.

When
we got seated, it didn't take all of us long to decide what we wanted. Margery had boneless
fried chicken and Paul chose country ham. We split a piece of
double-chocolate Coca-Cola cake for dessert. Everything was delish!

Since
it was crowded, we didn't linger too long at our table after we had finished eating, and we continued our
conversation outside on the porch. As we chatted, we noticed a very
nicely restored, late-1940s International pickup parked in the back of
the lot.

Late-1940s International pickup

We
eventually said our good-byes and headed back to Blueberry Hill where we settled in for an evening
of TV. On Monday, we finished putting things away around the motor home to get ready for our departure on Tuesday. It's amazing how much
stuff we get out and leave out when we park for an extended period of
time. We also said good-bye to Pat and Mike and to the few neighbors who were remaining.

We pulled out around 9:20 Tuesday morning headed for Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL where we are planning to stay for several
weeks. We were hoping that leaving on Tuesday we would avoid the holiday and departing snowbird travelers. Although there was a good bit of traffic heading north on I-75, it wasn't excessively heavy - we didn't run into any slow-downs or problems at all. Once we hit I-10 and started heading west, traffic thinned out to practically nothing. Good plan!

We made an overnight stop at Florida Springs RV Campground in Bonifay, FL to the west of Tallahassee where RV friends, Randy and Terry, are workamping. It was a little over a 5-hour drive, which is a farther than we usually like to drive in a day; but since we gained an hour going into the Central Time Zone, it didn't seem quite as long as it was.

Florida Springs RV is only a short distance from the interstate, so there is some traffic noise. However, it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, even late at night when everything else is very quiet. That's partly due to the relatively light traffic on I-10 and partly due to the fact there is a small rise between the campground and the interstate that helps block the sound. There were no trains either.

The roads and sites at Florida Springs RV are a mixture of sand and gravel. Most of the sites are shady, so there is very little grass between the sites. Most of the sites also have full hookups, some with 30/50-amp electric and some with 30 amps. There is also free cable and free Wi-Fi, but we were too far from the office to get a Wi-Fi signal. Fortunately, even though the area seems to be very rural, we had strong Verizon 4G broadband service.

The campground has a mixture of back-ins and pull-throughs. The spacing of the back-ins is a little close together, and some of the pull-throughs are very close. We always like to get a pull-through when we're making a one-night stop so we don't have to unhook the toad. Fortunately for us, a few of the pull-throughs also have a clear view of the southern sky for good satellite reception, so we didn't have to unhook the toad or fool with the tripod for only one night. Unfortunately, not only are some the pull-through sites close together, but the sunny pull-throughs don't have sewer hookups either. And on top of that, the sunny pull-throughs aren't very level.

Our sunny, pull-through site at Florida Springs RV

Some of the shady, back-in sites

Florida Springs RV Park isn't exactly a destination campground, but it's not bad for an overnight stop or a stay of a few days. Their regular nightly rate of $36 for a 50-amp site seems a bit pricey; but they are a Passport America campground, and the price isn't too bad with the 50% discount.

We hit the road a little before 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. We only had about 2½-hour drive to the Escapees Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL; but we could see lots of rain moving into the area on the weather radar, so hurried to leave early because we didn't want to have to unhook utilities and put away all the leveling blocks in the rain.

It started to sprinkle just as we pulled out of the campground, and the intensity of the rain gradually increased the whole way so it was raining pretty hard by the time we got to Rainbow Plantation. That meant we had to unhook the toad and set up in the rain.

We both got soaked even though we dug our raincoats out of the closet and put them on. Our raincoats were pretty old, and we haven't worn them in quite a while. The vinyl lining that is supposed to make them water repellent was cracked from age, so they weren't much better than wearing a regular jacket. We'll be looking for new raincoats in the near future.

After we got backed in and leveled, Paul hooked up the electricity and we put out the slides. Paul hooked up the water and sewer a couple of hours later after the rain stopped.

The sites in the RV campground at Rainbow Plantation are all large back-ins. The sites are mostly grass, but there are a lot of bare, sandy spots - especially where there is shade from the many live oaks. Fortunately for us, the trees aren't huge, and we can usually get our satellite dish to peek up between the branches to lock onto a satellite signal. There are full hookups with 30-amp electric on the eastern end of the campground and 30/50-amp electric on the western end. The next photo of Rainbow Plantation was taken a couple of days later after the sun came out.

Our site at Rainbow Plantation

The area around Summerdale, AL is one of our favorite locations. Since have spent several weeks here every spring and fall for the past several years, we have found plenty of great eating places, and visiting them has become one of our favorite activities while staying here. We hope we will be able to hit most of them without busting our budget or our diets. Stay tuned.

October 30, 2012

Summerdale, AL - Getting Settled

Summerdale, AL - Events of Monday, October 22 to Thursday, October 25, 2012

We left Montgomery on Monday for about a 3½-hour drive to Summerdale, AL. As we said in our last post, the engine of the motor home purred like a kitten with the new spark plugs and wires Paul had installed toward the end of our stay in Montgomery.

We pulled into the Escapees Rainbow Plantation shortly after noon and got one of the same couple of sites we usually get. The roads at Rainbow Plantation are paved, and the widely-spaced sites are grass, but the grass is sometimes a little sparse directly under the many live oak trees. Although there are a fair number of trees, our roof-top satellite dish can usually peek between them to lock onto a signal.

Our site at Rainbow Plantation

View down the road from our site

Rainbow Plantation has a campground, co-op sites and deeded lots. The campground has full hookups. About half the RV sites have 30-amp electric, and the other half have 30/50 amps. There is a fee for Wi-Fi so we use our Verizon Broadband when we're at Rainbow Plantation. Verizon Broadband is
nice and strong in the area, and it is 4G.

We are scheduled to be in Summerdale for 6 weeks, and we plan to do a lot of relaxing. During our previous stays, we also have found several eateries in the area we really like. We plan to visit all of them at least once. We may do a little sightseeing, but we don't have any specific plans because we have other important business to tend to.

Margery has been going to an ophthalmologist who has been monitoring the condition of her cataracts for the past several years. When we were in Pittsburgh for
our doctor appointments back in 2011, he told her the time for cataract surgery was getting close. When she had her appointment this year, Margery's ophthalmologist told her the time for surgery had arrived.

Margery really wanted her cataract surgery done by her regular ophthalmologist; but, unfortunately, his surgery schedule was booked up over two months out. Margery has to have both eyes done, and they like to have the surgeries no less than about 10 days to two weeks apart. They also want a followup visit two weeks after the second surgery, so that means the minimum amount of time we would have had to spend in Pittsburgh was a month. Factoring in the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we would have ended up having to be in
Pittsburgh from the end of November into early January.

Our options were to stay in the motor home in Pittsburgh in cold weather, to take the motor home to Florida and drive back to Pittsburgh in the car to stay with Lora and J. Michael for the entire period, or to go to Florida for the winter as planned and go back to Pittsburgh in the motor home in the early spring for the surgery. In the end, we decided against all those options because Margery got a recommendation for a good ophthalmologist in the Summerdale area, so she will have cataract surgery while we're in Alabama. She was able to schedule in advance an initial visit with the ophthalmologist as well as a pre-surgery physical, the surgeries for both eyes and the post-surgery checkups. We'll keep everyone posted as things progress.

Those who follow our blog regularly know by now we love good barbecue. Up until we stopped at Champs for barbecue while we were in Montgomery, we hadn't had barbecue in a long time. That barbecue was so good, it made us want more. Therefore, we headed over to L.A. Barbeque in Summerdale on Tuesday afternoon for a late lunch.

L.A. Barbeque

The place is really a lot bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. We'll have to try to remember to get a picture of the inside when we go back, and we will definitely be going back while we're here.

L.A. Barbeque has pork, ribs, brisket and chicken. Sandwiches come in two sizes that range in price from $4.25 for a small pork to $6.75 for a large brisket. Sides can be added to your sandwich order for $1.25 to $1.50 each. Lunch plates are $5.99 to $7.99 and include two sides. Dinner plates are $8.99 to $12.99 with two sides. They also sell their meats by the pound and sides by the pint, quart and gallon for takeout and for parties.

We both had chopped pork barbecue lunch plates with slaw and potato salad for our sides. The pork is slightly smoky, tender and moist. They have several barbecue sauces to choose from including Carolina, Texas Tangy, Southern Sweet and Fire in the Hole. Paul likes a mixture of Carolina and Texas while Margery likes Southern and Texas.

Chopped pork lunch plate

Margery about to add Texas Tangy barbecue sauce

The sides at L.A. Barbeque are excellent. In addition to cole slaw, potato salad, French fries and beans that they have every day, they also have one or two special sides each day that include things like lima beans (one of Paul's favorites), turnips with corn bread, and creamed corn.

On Wednesday, Margery had an appointment for a haircut, and we hung out around the motor home the rest of the day. We stopped at Sam's Club and Lowe's on Thursday on our way to Panini Pete's in Fairhope for another late lunch.

Panini Pete's was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives back in 2008. Most of what they serve is prepared fresh in-house. They roast their own turkey and beef, they bake their own bread, and they even make their own mozzarella. In addition to paninis, they also have gourmet burgers and hot dogs.

Panini Pete's has two locations - one in downtown Mobile and the one we always go to on the eastern side of Mobile Bay in downtown Fairhope. Fairhope has vibrant downtown with many busy shops. There is free parking and there are attractive flowers planted on every street corner.

Attractive plantings decorate the streets of downtown Fairhope

Panini Pete's is located behind some shops on the main street along a patio they call the French Quarter. We always like to sit outside on the patio if the weather is nice.

We both had our favorite, which is the turkey panino with baby greens, roasted red pepper, garlic aioli and house-made mozzarella on foccacia.

House-roasted turkey panino with shoestring fries

The paninis were delicious as they always are. We took the long way back to Rainbow Plantation past the fancy bay-front homes south of Fairhope along Mobile Bay.

Margery starts her pre-surgery doctor appointments with the initial visit with the ophthalmologist on Friday. We'll let you know how the appointment went in our next post.